Sleepover on the Hill: MPs debate Canada Post back-to-work bill

OTTAWA — There was no popcorn or pillow fights — not within public view, anyway — during the first night of the parliamentary sleepover that launched what could be a long showdown on Parliament Hill over efforts to force Canada Post employees back to work.

MPs, including Prime Minister Stephen Harper, spent Thursday night in the House of Commons, going from their desks in the chamber to the plush chairs in the lobbies or couches in their Hill offices and back to the chamber.

They were there debating Bill C-6, which sets out to legislate 50,000 locked-out Canada Post employees back to work.

Friday was supposed to be the first day of summer holidays for MPs. But the NDP has vowed to draw out the debate and prevent the bill from passing, allowing postal workers and their managers more time to strike their own deal instead of being bound to one written by the government.

But talks between the feuding sides collapsed late Wednesday night, and there is no indication either side is prepared to return to the table.

The main sticking point over the bill is the wage settlements the federal government has written in. The salaries are lower than those management had offered earlier this month during negotiations.

Mr. Harper has said the wages are fair, and are “rates this government agreed to with its other public-service workers.”

Opposition MPs have condemned the salaries, and the bill as a whole, saying it undermines the right to collective bargaining.

NDP leader Jack Layton launched into the party’s first stalling tactic late Thursday night, when he presented a “hoist motion,” which would effectively put the bill to bed — as if it had been defeated — for six months. He introduced the motion around before 10 p.m. Thursday. The House is still debating it.

All bills have to go through the same process — three readings, a committee study and votes. Parliament was set to begin second reading of the bill Thursday night, but that part of the precess was delayed because of Mr. Layton’s motion.

The evolution of a bill is typically spread over days, weeks or months, giving parliamentarians a chance to tend to other business. But on Thursday, MPs voted to pass all those stages in one sitting, meaning they’ll all be camped out in the House until the bill passes. It’s expected to pass, given the Conservative majority, although it may be amended by the time the final vote comes.

Other stalling measures the NDP could use include allowing each of their MPs to give the 20-minute speeches procedure permits and using the full 10 minutes allotted to discuss each speech.

Later, they can draw the process out by taking every allowable minute to debate every single clause in the bill, and they can also introduce as many amendments as they like — each of which will have to go through a five- to 10-minute vote.

Canada Post locked out its employees on June 14, after the Canadian Union of Postal Workers conducted 12 days of rotating strikes.

The Crown corporation blamed their two weeks of rotating strikes for estimated losses of $100 million.

Canada Post and the union went through seven months of failed negotiations before the rotating strikes began.

Aside from wages, changing the sick leave plan has also caused contention between the two sides; Canada Post had fought for a short-term disability plan to replace banking sick days.